Nice weather boosts opening-weekend business

ELMONT, N.Y. – Good weather led to good business for the opening weekend of Belmont Park’s fall meet.

All-sources handle for opening weekend, last Friday through Sunday, was $27,016,418, a 14.2 percent increase over last year’s figure of $23,661,082 for the first three days. Ontrack handle was $3,479,090, an 8.6 percent increase over last year’s figure of $3,201,596.

This year, all 15 scheduled turf races were run on the turf, whereas last year, nine of the first 15 scheduled turf races had to be moved to the dirt due to inclement weather.

Average field size for opening weekend was 7.57 horses per race compared with 6.96 last year.